Barrier operators of various kinds have been known and used for many years. Examples of such barrier operators include gate operators, rolling shutter operators, garage door operators, and the like. In one example, garage door operators are mounted within a garage to automate the process of opening and closing a garage door. In its simplest form, a garage door operator includes a motor connected to move a barrier between an open position and a closed position and control circuitry configured to control the motor. Such garage door operators can reliably operate a garage door for many years with basic maintenance.
More recently, however, barrier operators have begun evolving to include additional features beyond the simple task of opening and closing the barrier. Such new features include network communication options including remote operation of the barrier operator, such as by a smartphone or other network connected device, and the like. To have access to such features, however, typically a completely new barrier operator with a new motor and connection equipment must be purchased and installed for a user to have access to the new features. This contradicts the reality where barrier operators are generally designed to perform their core function of opening and closing a barrier for many years.
Secondary safety or entrapment devices such as safety eyes (IR, photo-eye, and the like) or door edges for movable barrier operators (MBOs), such as garage door openers (GDOs), are a requirement for an Underwriters Laboratories (UL) listing throughout the United States. While they have greatly increased the safety of MBOs since their introduction in the 1990s, they are time consuming to install in their traditional configuration with wires running from each safety eye to the MBO itself. Some older MBOs may not have safety eyes, or in the case of users outside of the United States, safety eyes may not be required and therefore may not be present even on newer MBOs.
However, if a user desires to operate an MBO remotely, such as via a network connected computing device, (e.g. a smartphone), a secondary safety device would generally be required, as the user is not present at the barrier to confirm that it is safe to move the barrier. If the MBO does not already have a secondary safety device, one must be installed in order to comply with safety requirements or in the situation that the remote operator requires an input from a secondary safety device before it will execute remote commands to move the barrier. Unfortunately, known secondary safety devices, such as photo eyes, are generally configured to be wired directly to the MBO or are designed to be used with only a single brand or model of MBO, and therefore are not designed to be used in a retrofit scenario to integrate with a variety of different brands and models of MBOs. In addition, some MBOs may not be configured to operate with a secondary safety device at all.